Maximum Ride: Life or Death
by turquoiseflame
Summary: Takes place after book four. ITEX has risen out of the ashes and now seeks revenge over Max and the Flock. They’re on the run once again trying to stop this evil company and their new-and-improved plan. And what will Max decide to do about Fang? Fax.
1. The Flight

**A/N – This is my first fanfic! Yay, bring out the fireworks! I decided to have a go and write one after all, hopefully you don't think it's too crappy but feel free to tell me if it is, any sort of feedback would make my day.**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Maximum Ride or any of the characters *sigh* (a girl can dream).**

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Ah, flying, Freedom. What could be better? How about a nice, safe, warm place to sleep at night? Food that isn't, at best, a day old. Yes, once again we were on the run. From what? That question is yet to be answered, either by the rather annoying but sometimes helpful Voice in my head or maybe this was another riddle I had to work out. Why do all my sentences make me sound like some sort of nut-job? I sighed loudly which made Nudge look over at me from where she was flying, close to my left.

"So where are we going?" She asked.

Good question! _Voice? A little help here please._ I thought, not really expecting an answer and when it spoke back to me I nearly jumped right out of my skin!

_**Head over to England, one of ITEX's branches is still running and they're after the flock, they want revenge. They have a new plan and it's even more deadly than the last one. You must stop them, Maximum, the lives of everyone on earth depend on you. **_

Whoa! No pressure! So, our mission to save the world continues. Interesting…

"England" I finally reply to Nudge's question, a massive grin spreads across her face.

"No" I say firmly, looking straight ahead to avoid the bambi eyes I know I can't resist "we're not going to visit any unnecessary tourist traps ok?"

"Not even Buckingham Palace?" She pleaded.

I risked a glance at her "You think I'll let Angel anywhere near the Queen of England after the whole President incident?" I smiled, she smiled back but I knew this would come up again later.

When we got to our destination, Washington Dulles international airport, I signaled for the flock to land. They all gave me funny looks but I ignored them until we landed.

"What are we doing here?" Fang asked, deadpan.

That was my queue to tell them all about the new mission, how we were flying to England, ITEX not fully destroyed, peoples lives at stake and all that. It was all starting to get a little repetitive if you ask me.

"So how do you plan on getting us on a plane, Genius?" Iggy asked me.

"We have a secret weapon" I said, winking at Angel, she giggled.

Of course our little six year old mind controller managed to get us seven business class plane tickets (Total insisted he get his own seat, we also couldn't carry Akila around with us because she was just too heavy, we had to leave her with Michael, Total was completely heartbroken) to England, this isn't the first time she's done it either. What's up with all this déjà vu?

None of us were feeling exactly comfortable on the plane due to the whole claustrophobia issue but hey, at least we got food!

About an hour into the flight I thought I might just rip open the emergency exit door and escape out of it as fast as I could, not because there were evil robots or other genetically modified animals after us, just out of sheer boredom. What was worse was that we still had seven hours to go! I would much rather be flying with my own wings, which were currently pulled in tightly behind my back, but I knew that couldn't happen so I just sat there watching Nudge beat Gazzy at checkers for the hundredth time. I did a quick scan around the plane, everyone looked safe but you never know who might be working for evil scientists these days. Iggy was fast asleep, Angel was talking quietly to Total and Fang was staring motionless out of the small plane window in the seat next to mine. He felt me looking at him and turned to face me.

"You look exhausted" He said.

"I'm fine" I replied but all of a sudden I had an overwhelming desire to sleep, a yawn escaped from my lips.

Fang smiled "Go to sleep, I'll keep watch" He turned back to the window and that's all I saw before my eyes closed.

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**A/N – I know what you're thinking, where's all the action? Don't worry, it'll come. I just needed a chapter to start it off. If you're reading this note, it probably means that you've read the whole chapter, so THANK YOU! Review please. :)**


	2. The Dream

**A/N- I already had this chapter finished but for some reason Fanfiction wouldn't let me upload it, I know its short but I'll hopefully be writing some longer ones soon when I have more time. Thanks to all the people who reviewed, you rock!**

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_I was dreaming. I knew I was dreaming because something about what I was seeing in front of me just wasn't completely real, it had a sort of fadedness about it. But at the same time it was unusually clear for a dream. The oddest thing was that I was just dreaming of us on the plane, was my imagination taking a nap or something? I looked over at fang, who was still sitting in the same position as he was when I was conscious._

"_We'll be landing in about an hour" He told me, not taking his eyes off the window "Take a look outside"_

_It had gotten dark and the lights had been turned on inside the cabin. I saw that the younger kids were all lying motionless with their eyes closed, the thin blankets covering them were slowly rising and falling with each breath they took._

_I turned my attention back to Fang who was waiting patiently while I did my little safety check. He motioned again towards the window. I leaned over him to take a look and sure enough there was land beneath us, lit up by millions of tiny lights. It was then I noticed how close Fang and I were to each other, I was practically sitting on his lap! Realizing this I quickly sat back down in my own seat and looked away to hide my blush._

"_Max…" he started to say, then the sentence faded away as if he didn't know how to continue. I looked up at his face, he was slowly leaning in towards me. Oh crap! Did I want this? A part of me did and a part of me didn't, ahh, I needed time to think. But then again this was a dream…_

_All of a sudden there was an ear-shattering explosion_ _and I woke up with a start_.

That was a weird dream. I decided to forget it and looked at Fang.

"We'll be landing in about an hour" He said still staring out the window "Take a look outside"

A strange feeling rose in my stomach. It was just a coincidence right? Looking around the cabin I could see the kids were fast asleep, the cabin crew had handed out blankets and I saw that there was one covering me. I turned back to Fang who was now looking at me, he pointed to the window again and I leaned over to look outside, yep it was exactly the same view that I dreamt of. I sat back down again as I remembered the last thing that happened in my dream, panic started rising in my chest. We had to get out of this plane!

"Max…" Fang said, not finishing his sentence just like I knew he wouldn't.

"Fang." I whispered to him urgently "We have to get out of here _now_."

"What? Why?" He asked, suddenly alert and ready to fight.

"I don't have time to explain, start waking the others up before it's too late" I ordered, my voice starting to rise. Even before I finished my sentence, I was on my feet rushing around the plane, shaking the flock awake by their shoulders.

I figured we had about ten seconds left before it happened and started pushing all the kids towards an emergency exit, then it hit me that we were the only ones going to survive. If we opened the door, everything would be sucked out but if we stayed then we'd all be blown up. Guess which option I chose? Of course, if I was going to save any six people (including a dog) from this aircraft it would be my flock, so without wasting another precious second, I pulled on the small handle near the top of the door.

Just as one of the cabin crew started running up to us shouting "Hey, get away from that door…" I managed to rip it open in time to hear the ear-shattering BOOM I was waiting for. By then, though, we were already out in the cool night air, flapping as fast as we could to get away from the now burning plane.

When we were at a safe distance we turned in time to see the huge plane-shaped fireball hit the coast with a massive crash. Gazzy's face had a look of complete awe on it.

The rest of the flock had a mix of confusion, fear and surprise on their faces. For a while we all just hovered there, speechless. Then Iggy broke the silence, "What. The. HELL. Just happened?!"

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**A/N- So what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Let me know. I already worship anyone who takes the time to read it!**


	3. Explanations and Complications

No one said anything so I decided to tell Iggy exactly what happened; "Plane just blew up" I said intelligently. By now, everyone had recovered from the shock and had re-gained their ability to talk. Gazzy flew over and started describing the explosion in full detail to Iggy while the rest of them were shouting questions at me, not waiting for an answer.

"What was that?"

"I—"

"How did you know that was gonna happen?"

"And then Max opened the door and BOOM…"

"We almost died! Can you believe it?"

"Hey, can I talk—"

"Oh my god, Max you… you… how did you do that?"

"Max, explain…"

"SHUT UP" I shouted, this seemed to do the trick since everyone stopped talking and just stared at me with questioning looks. "I had a dream on the plane." I told them "It was more realistic than normal. I was just dreaming of us on the plane, you guys were sleeping, I was talking to Fang…" I looked around at the flocks faces, they looked confused, heck so was I! What was up with this dream thing? "..then all of a sudden there was a loud explosion and—"

"Then what?! Then what?!" Nudge interrupted, unable to contain her excitement.

"I woke up." I replied, smiling "But the weirdest thing is, everything I saw started becoming real, you were all sleeping in the same positions, Fang said the same words to me, even the view outside was the same."

"So you figured the explosion would happen too… you saved us Max!" Angel finished. She tried to hug me but since we were in the air it didn't quite work and we fell a few feet.

"So does this mean you have a new power?" Total asked when we joined them again, his wings were now fully grown and he was learning how to fly quite fast.

"I guess so" I shrugged "but who knows, maybe it was just a one shot and won't happen again"

"Oh my god! You're like a fortune teller!" Nudge exclaimed "What's gonna happen to me?"

"I don't think it works like that Nudge" I laughed "but if I dream about you, you'll be the first one to know."

She nodded excitedly.

"So where to now?" Fang surprised me from behind.

"Ok, we need to find a place to land" I said to the flock and they nodded, starting to fly off in search of someplace we could sleep, explosions really take it out of ya. I thanked my lucky stars that we crash landed in England and not the middle of the ocean.

Just as I started to fly off to join them, something stopped me and I looked down at the mess below. There were hundreds ambulances and fire trucks, lights flashing, sirens wailing. I felt guilt seep through my veins as I thought of all the people that had died, not just the ones that were in the plane but the ones that were innocently walking on the streets below. Someone placed a hand on my shoulder, Fang.

"It wasn't your fault" He whispered, reading my mind "that bomb would have gone off anyway, if you managed to save us or not. If it wasn't for you, there would be seven more casualties down there"

I nodded, silently, and followed him back to the others. If it wasn't for us, of course, there wouldn't have been a bomb on that plane in the first place. I put it out of my mind and tried to keep a fake smile on my face for the kids' sake.

We flew in silence for a while, and then Angel spotted a large park we could land in. It was the middle of the night so no one saw us or our wings, and soon enough we found a nice, big, secluded tree to sleep in. We stacked fists and everyone went off to find a comfortable branch.

I couldn't sleep. No matter how hard I tried, my brain was refusing to shut down and let me get some peace. I sat up on my branch and looked out at the sky through the leaves above me. It was starting to get light and for a while I just sat there, enjoying the silence.

All of a sudden Fang shimmered into view beside me and I almost fell out of the tree.

"What the hell Fang!" I whispered, irritated, not wanting to wake the others up "Some kind of warning would have been nice."

His mouth pulled up at one corner making my stomach do somersaults. Stop it Max! He's part of your family! But did I still think of him that way? Things had changed lately…

"What are you thinking about?" He asked quietly, his face framed by the golden sunrise.

"The flock" I answered, thinking quickly. Well I wasn't lying exactly, Fang was part of the flock. He looked over at Nudge who was sleeping on the closest branch to us, one arm hanging lazily off the side.

"They'll be fine" Fang whispered, turning back to me "they're used to being on the run."

I frowned "That's exactly what they shouldn't be used to, they're only kids."

He shuffled up the branch so our arms were touching but didn't say anything. Ok Max, breathe. In, out, in, out. I don't know how long we sat like that for but just as I started to feel slightly dizzy, Gazzy jumped down onto the branch below us "What's for breakfast?" He asked cheerily. I smiled down at him as the others started waking up.

"Ok, listen up!" I clapped my hands once and all six heads turned to face me "Once we find some chow, we're going straight after what's left of ITEX, no stopping anywhere we don't need to, got it?"

I could see Nudge's face fall, along with the Gasman's and Angel's. They looked up at me with the cutest puppy dog eyes you can imagine and I nearly gave in. Nearly. Instead, I turned away and jumped out of the tree, landing expertly on my feet. The others followed one by one with Fang last. Fang. I needed to talk to him, next time we were alone, I would.

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**A/N- Just for anyone who was confused or still is after this chapter, Max did get a new power, she can tell the future! Ohh ahh! Sorry if I didn't make that clear, I sometimes forget that people can't see into my head… Review and you will get… a… um, smile! :) And the rain will turn into chocolate buttons.**


	4. Trackers?

**A/N- I'm soooo sorry for the long wait. I have been really busy and had a bad case of writers block. But here is chapter four, sorry It's short but I am uploading two chapters today so hopefully that will make up for it. :)  
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The Tracker tapped lightly on his transmitter, it crackled a little but he could barely understand the voice on the other end.

"You see the targets?" It buzzed.

"Affirmative. We have them surrounded." The Tracker replied in his almost human voice. He could see them moving from a distance, the tallest female was in front of the rest holding the hand of the smallest female. The rest were behind including a small dog. This made the Tracker hesitate, his directions had failed to mention a dog. Taking a closer look he could see two very small white wings folded in on the dogs back. Interesting. He would bring him back with the others.

"Well then what are you waiting for?! Bring them to me!" The voice shouted.

Again the transmitter crackled, but this time there was no voice on the other end. He threw it hard against a tree and it immediately stopped crackling, bits of plastic flew in all directions. There, he had fixed it, just like he would fix the winged children.

He motioned for the army to come forward from behind the trees. It was time. He, with the rest of his army leaped out of the cover of the foliage and broke into a run. Of course, with the speed they had been programmed with they reached the mutant children in less than half a minute. He skidded to a halt right in front of the oldest female stopping her in her tracks, her eyes went wide and the girl beside her gasped. The Tracker smiled, this was the reaction he had hoped for.

"What the hell?" The dark haired male muttered surprised.

"Who are you?!" The female at the front snarled.

"We are the Trackers. You will come with us or we will take you by force."

"No freaking way!" She replied, unfurling her wings and taking off followed by the others. The Tracker motioned for the rest of the army to attack. Show time.


	5. Captured: Read authers note at end

**A/N- So you don't get confused; this chapter starts off before the fight, this time in Max's POV.**

Ok. First we needed to figure out where the hell we were. When you're plane explodes/crash lands, the Captains last words are not going to be "and here we are in (Insert City of you choice here), please undo your seatbelts and prepare to die". Well we were in a park, I knew that much.

"Angel" I asked looking down at her small hand in mine "do you remember where the ITEX headquarters were last time we were here?"

Usually I hate asking for help, even if it's from a family member but I honestly couldn't remember. Maybe there was something wrong with my brain. More than usual, I mean.

Angel looked up into the clouds, thinking. Then all of a sudden her head snapped back to face me, she looked terrified.

Before I had time to even blink, something came to a running stop right in front of me, I stopped walking, shocked. Angel gasped. Everyone behind me stopped as well causing Iggy to bump into the Gasman, I heard a thunk and an "Ow, watch it!"

The thing in front of me looked sort of like a Flyboy but with more of a catlike skin stretched over it. It had whiskers, cat ears and even a freaking tail! What is up with these evil scientists? They must be really bored if they keep making robots with fur coats (Haha, you get it? Fur… never mind). It was bigger than a Flyboy and I really doubted that it could fly. It did have arms and legs like a human but the eyes are what scared me the most. They had slits in them like a cats eyes but they glowed red. More of them came out from behind the trees, there must have been hundreds surrounding us.

"What the hell?" Fang whispered.

"Who are you?!" I snarled, snapping out of my little trance.

"We are the Trackers. You will come with us or we will take you by force." He replied almost calmly, making me even angrier. His voice sounded almost normal but still a little robotic.

"No freaking way!" I shouted, unfurling my wings, ready to take off. The others did the same and we jumped up into the air.

Just as we started to fly away something grabbed my leg and pulled me back down to the ground. I let out a yelp, a 'Tracker' had jumped into the air and grabbed me! How did that just happen? We had been a good 30 feet above ground and I was pretty sure the Trackers couldn't fly. In fact we just landed back onto the grass but not in the whole crash and tumble kind of way you'd imagine. The Tracker just landed on his feet! Like a cat! Did he jump that high? I looked up to see the flock flying back towards me.

"Max!" Nudge shouted.

I wanted to warn them, to tell them to fly away but before I could, the Tracker put one hand over my mouth and was holding my hands behind my back with the other. I tried kicking him, I tried to whack him with my wings, I even tried (ew) biting him. No luck. He was dragging me through the woods, if you've ever been dragged before with your hands behind your back then you'll know that I wasn't feeling too comfortable right this minute.

I looked frantically over at the flock, they weren't doing so well. Nudge had been pinned against a tree by about six of these stupid cat robots, Iggy, the Gasman and Total were surrounded by them, I could just about see the top of Iggys' strawberry-blond head. Fang had brought a few down but they were slowly closing in on him as well. And Angel… where was Angel?! Oh god! Not again! Please don't let her have been kidnapped again. My eyes were darting everywhere in search for that mop of blond curls. I began screaming at the Tracker who was holding on to me.

"Let me go you useless fleabag!" I shouted thrashing my arms and legs around, as if that would help.

He stopped and looked down at me, eyes glowing. He stared into my eyes making it extremely difficult to look away, like I was in some kind of trance. I began to feel really tired and my eyelids were shutting ever so slowly.

Just before I blacked out completely, I saw a little girl with blond curls lying unconscious on the ground.

**A/N- UPDATE!!! (18 June 09) **

**Hi guys, sorry I haven't updloaded any chapters in ages but I've been really busy and to be honest kind of lost interest in the story. It's being discontinued until further notice. So I may decide later on that I might finish it but not any time soon. Sorry again and thanks for reading.**


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